


Losing My Family

by Sky_Reader16



Category: RWBY
Genre: Death, F/M, Hurt Nora, Multi, Pain, Poor Nora..., Spoilers for Volume 8, all the pain, response to another fic, tumblr post
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:00:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28351290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sky_Reader16/pseuds/Sky_Reader16
Summary: Nora’s reaction to finding out that she has lost her boys and her team.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc/Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 31
Kudos: 66





	1. Feeling Lost

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [from the bottom of my heart i’ll miss you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28235214) by [solamaryllis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/solamaryllis/pseuds/solamaryllis). 



> This is my first ever fan fic so...please no harsh judgements...pwease...
> 
> Also, it is in response to a painful fic posted by my friend...
> 
> Enjoy...and sorry...?

When Nora first came to, she didn’t know where she was. The room looked kind of like Schnee manor, at least what she remembered.

Her mouth was dry and she was in dire need of a drink. Her head was pounding. She was about to go back to sleep, ignoring her thirst, just wanting her head to stop pounding. But then she noticed the bandages covering her. Almost every inch of her body.

**What the hell happened.**

The last thing she remembered was seeing Penny on the other side of the doorway, and then the door shutting. Sealing Penny off on the other side.

—

_ No. Not again. Penny has already died once.  _

**_I'm not losing another person. Not Ruby. Not Weiss. Not Blake. Not Yang. Not Oscar. Not Jaune. Not Ren._ **

_ Nora decided that she may not know Penny that much, but she still cared about Penny. But what were they going to do? Only Penny had the ability to open the door, and now she was locked on the other side. With the Ace ops. _

_ She looked over to her team. Her friends. Her family. She took in the worried looks on their faces. _

_ First, Blake. She didn't know much about her, but Ren enjoyed her presence and she could be fun to hang with. Then, the Ice Queen, Weiss. She could be overly bossy and extremely frustrating, but that's just who she is. It was starting to grow on her. Even more so with her return, as she was kinder now. Lastly, Ruby. Ruby, who much like her, was almost always happy with too much energy to control. _

_ She looked back to the door, thinking of Penny. She still didn’t know Penny all that well. She only ever saw her a few times at Beacon during the Vytal festival before she… _

_ But Penny was important to Ruby; therefore, important to her. _

_ Weiss summons something to try to break through the electric field on the door. However, after a few blows it disintegrated. _

_ “Four verses one? Cowards,” Weiss said. _

_ “Penny’s the winter maiden. I’m sure she can hold her own for a little bit,” Ruby says in response, almost unsure who she is trying to convince. _

_ “We have to get out there,” Nora says in fear and frustration. _

**_Not again. The boys will have to forgive me._ **

_ Nora walks to the door _

_ “Be strong,” she extends her hammer, “and hit stuff.” _

_ Nora sticks her hammer into the side panel, baring hears Weiss’s plea to wait. _

_ For the first second it was no different than taking in lightning. But the electricity built up pretty quickly. After only another second and her whole body was coursing with electricity. She knew she was beyond her limit. Not because she had reached it before, but because her whole body was tingling and throbbing, but yet, numb. _

_ It was hard to see, electricity puling over her eyes, blocking most of her vision. However, she could still see her target. The door. _

_ The she swung her hammer. _

_ The door explodes. _

_ Penny stands. _

_ Ace ops climbing out from under the door. _

_ Then, darkness. _

—

She lays in bed a few seconds before deciding that nobody was going to just come in for a bit. Her mouth was too dry to try to yell for someone so she decided to just try to get up.

Fighting against her body’s screams of pain and her throbbing head. She sits up and dots block her vision as she almost passes out, but she fights against it, as she has felt worse pain. She scoots out of bed and her feet touch the icy floor, sending ice cold eletric shocks up her body, causing her to jump a little.

Not having enough energy or strength to find cloths she ops to just wrap herself in one of the giant blankets. She steps out of the room and sees a light on down the hall.

She shuffles down the hall to the room. It takes entirely to long to reach it.

Inside she hers sniffs from Ruby and whimpers from Blake. Both are curled up on Weiss’s lap, all three sitting on the floor. Weiss’s hushed voice trying to soothe them both, all the while her own voice trembles. It's obvious that something is wrong and hurting them, but the voices are just quiet enough that Nora can’t make out what any of them are saying.

Nora enters the room, hesitantly, feeling the pain radiating from the group. She hopes that whatever is bothering them doesn’t have to do with what happened to her in the compound, she’d hate to be the cause of her friend’s pain.

“G-guys?” Nora’s voice is weak, barely making any noise. Lucky, Blake’s cat ears heard her, saving her from straining to speak louder.

“Nora?” Blake’s voice sounded like her mind was miles away from where she stood.

“Nora, you shouldn’t be up! Not in your condition!” Weiss rushes over, Blake behind her. They lead her to the couch and set her down. All three looking a little less grave, now with something to do and keep the occupied.

Nora, unable to speak, signals for a cup of water and Weiss rushes out of the room to get a drink. Blake wanders off to a corner while Ruby gives Nora another blanket and tucks it in around her.

“It’s good to see you finally awake,” Ruby hugs her before following Blake over to her corner.

Weiss returns with a cup of warm tea.

“I-I’m not sure if you like tea...but it’s warm and Blake says this stuff normally helps with any pain.”

Nora nods and takes a sip. Nora loved tea. When Ren forbade her from drinking coffee, she started drinking tea in place.

“Thanks, it’s delightful.”

She holds the warm cup in both hands, soaking up all the warmth. She sits in her bundle of blankets, holding her tea and sipping it. Weiss watched her for a second before join the other two.

They talk amongst themselves, again, too low for her to hear what was being said. Sometimes Weiss’s frantic voice would rise, but Blake and Ruby quickly hushed her up.

Finally deciding she couldn’t stand them whispering any long Nora snaps.

“You guys obviously have something to say so just say it.”

Ruby’s face falls, tears springing to her eyes. She looks down, unable to make eye contact with Nora. Blake’s ears flatten, tears rolling down her cheek.

Nora instantly felt bad for snapping, but then Weiss started to speak.

“Jaune, Ren, Yang and Oscar ran into some...complications.”

“What? What complications?”

“According to Winter,” Weiss says and she starts to walk over to Nora, “Oscar was taken captive by a grim and to the Whale. Jaune, Ren, and Yang ran into the Ace ops after losing him. Winter arrested them. Then, she got a call about placing a bomb in Monstra. Yang, Ren and Jaune offered to go in, look for Oscar, and scour the area before them.”

“They made it out right? They were okay?” Nora asked, frantically. Practically begging for them to say that they were sleeping, that they were okay. That they were all fine.

Weiss took Nora’s hands in her’s, and Nora knew that they weren’t, but she refused to believe it. She wouldn’t believe it.

“I’m sorry, Nora.” This time it was Ruby, “None of them mad it out.”

“Wait? What?” Nora’s voice cracked, tears springing to her eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” Blake said, “They’re all gone. All of them,” pain laces her voice.

“No…” Nora’s throat closes up. The tea she just drank threatened to come up.

**No. Not again. It’s not true.**

The looks on her friend’s faces tell her its true. She knows it's true, but she refuses to belive it.

“No. It’s not true… It can’t be… they were supposed to come back. They promised… we all promised… they have to… they’ll come back…”

Nora colapsed into tears and broken sobs. Weiss hugs her to her chest.

**I’m never going to. See them again. Never hear their voice. Their laughs…**

**Ren… I’ll never hear him tell me I’m not allowed to have coffee when I joking pretend to grab a cup. Never see the light hits his eyes when the sun rises. I’ll never hear his humming when he makes pancakes for me. Never feel his soft hands hold mine. Never play with his hair. Never see his small smile when she talks. His light chuckle when she makes a joke or embaresses herself. His sigh when he’s deep in thought. His comfortable silence when he’s reading with me cuddled against his side.**

**I’ll never get the chance to tell him I love him.**

**And Jaune… I’ll never see his brilliant blue eyes light up when he laughs. I’ll never get to rest my head on his shoulder after a long day. Never make jokes. Never see him in his silly onesie. Never hear his soothing voice. Never hold his rough hand in mine. Never get into a tickle fight with him again. Never ride around on his back in the morning when she was too tired to move on the weekends.**

**Never get the chance to explore what could have been.**

**And… Oscar… cute boy Oz… He’ll never get the chance to grow up. I’ll never hear his sleepy giggles and groans at night and early morning. Never hug him again. Never see his eyes light up with mischief when Juane and I offer to let him in on a prank. Never hear stories about life being a farm hand.**

**I’ll never see any of them again… ever.**

**We promised to always come back to one another. We promised to never lose another person. Promised that it will never happen again.**

**Yet… It did.**

**Now I’m here. Alone. My family, gone. Ripped from me.**

**Well, not all of them. I still have Ruby, Blake, and Weiss.**

**But, it's not the same.**

Nora breaks from her trance to see that Ruby and Blake had joined them at some point. Blake on the floor, her head resting against Nora’s legs, holding her left hand. Weiss, still holding her right hand, head on her shoulder. Ruby, on the arm rest, arms wrapped around Nora.

Yeah… she’s not alone.

Never in Nora’s life has she felt so cherished and like she mattered, but yet, she’s never felt so alone and unsure in her life.


	2. You’re Alive?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora wakes up and finds out they her boys had survived. Barely, but they had survived.

Nora wakes up and she’s back in Weiss’s room. This time there are clothes on the table next to the bed and slippers on the floor.

She gets up and slips on the slippers and grabs the clothes, a pair of sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt. Nora quickly dresses and grabs a blanket from the bed. She notices a bottle of water on the stand she hadn’t seen before and grabs it, but when she does a dizzy spell washes over her and she stumbles, knocking over something glass. It smashes into the floor and Nora jumps.

Footsteps rush up the hall to her room. The door flings open.

“Weiss, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to. I-I got dizzy and-“

Arms wrap around Nora’s waist, gripping her tight. Those arms. The embrace. It was all too familiar.

_ Ren? No...it can’t- _

It even smelled like Ren.

Finally, the grip loosened, and Nora could see who was hugging her.

Before her stood a disheveled and worried Ren. A few steps behind him was Jaune, and behind him was Oscar. 

Without a second thought she trapped Ren in another hug, tears streaming from her eyes. She held onto him like he was the only thing keeping her from floating away, and he hugged her back. She breathed in his scent, the scent she thought she would never get to smell again. She hugged him as tight as she could, her muscles screaming in pain, but she didn’t care. She just held onto him as her tears soaked his hair and shoulder.

Finally, she let go, but immediately rushed over to Jaune and embraced him in a hug, which he returned. They hugged for a minute before she turned to their youngest member of their team, and wrapped her arms around him.

She turned back to Jaune and Ren. She had so many questions, but she didn’t know where to begin.

“I...How? How did you guys survive? I thought you died. Weiss… Blake… Ruby… They-they all told me you guys didn’t make it out,” tears still rolling down her face.

“They didn’t get to see us, but we made it out. We just barely made it out before the explosion. The explosion and smoke hid us from view, so nobody could see us.”

“We ran into several obstacles, and we were all too tired after getting out, so we had to rest, but we started trying to find you guys as soon as we were rested. We got a hold of Fiona and found out you guys were here, and we rushed over as fast as possible.”

Nora could hardly believe it. Her team was alive and safe. Her boys had come back. Her family was still safe.

She knew it. She didn’t believe them when they told her they were gone. She will admit, she started to believe them. She stopped thinking about when they would return home and lost hope for a minute. Yet, they were here with her, safe.

Nora was so overwhelmed with joy, she didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly a dizzy spell washed over her, and she nearly fell down, but Jaune caught her. He walked her over to one of the seats near the fireplace and sat her down. Oscar sat in a chair next to the small sofa she sat on. Jaune sat next to her, Ren sitting on her other and handed her the water bottle that started the whole thing.

Nora took it, taking a long drink before putting the lid back on it. Ren took her hand in his aand squeezed it tightly.

“It looks like you have a story of your own?” Oscar gestures to her new scars covering her body.

“I...It was the only thing I could think of. I-I know it was reckless, but I didn’t know what else to do, and we were running out of time. I-I was hoping you guys would forgive me for being rash and impulsive-“

“Nora, breathe. We aren’t mad,” Jaune cut her off.

“Just worried and curious,” Ren said, his fingers traced some of the scars.

Nora takes a deep breath before continuing.

“While in the compound, Penny got separated from Weiss, Blake, Ruby and I. May was hijacking an airship so we could escape. The door could only be opened by someone with access, and Penny was the only one in our group who could, but she was stuck on the other side, with the Ace Ops. Weiss tried summoning to help us break through the door, but it didn’t work, and I… I thought that with it being electricity I could handle it. Except… it was too much… I did manage to break through the door, but...this also happened,” she gestured to herself.

A silence fell over the room. The only sound was the fire crackling in front of them.

Everything suddenly felt like it was going to be okay. Oscar, Jaune, and Ren were all okay. They were all back together. For the first time since they lost Pyrrha, Nora felt that everything was going to get better. She felt safe, and at home with her boys back, especially with being sandwiched between Ren and Jaune.

Oscar stood up saying he needed a drink, and Jaune followed him telling the two that he was going to go and inform Weiss what happened, and that other than the glass everything was okay.

Nora and Ren continued to sit together, and even though there was more room, neither moved. After a minute Ren shifted slightly so he could face her better.

“Nora. I-I haven’t been treating you the best lately. I-I see that now. When we thought we were going to die, I realized how unkind I’ve been. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I haven’t been what you needed. I’m sor-“

“It’s okay, Ren,” tears were in Nora’s eyes again, making it hard to see. “So much has been going on. All that matters now is that we are back together. We are all alive and we’re going to be okay,” she squeezed his hand.

Ren smiled at her, a few tears rolled down his cheek.

“Nora, I also realized that if I died in there that I would never have gotten to tell you how I feel… Nora, I- I love you. I always have. I’ve just been too scared of saying it, and losing you. I was scared to let myself love you and lose you like I’ve lost everyone else. However, I realized that what was worse was dying and never telling you how much I loved you. Dying and never telling you that I loved you scared me more than the thought of loving you and losing you.”

“Ren, I-I love you, too,” Nora barely got the words out before Ren leaned in and kissed her.

At first she was so shocked, but she quickly recovered and returned the kiss.

Ren wrapped his arms around her, holding him to his chest. She moved her hands to his hair, her fingers getting tangled in his messy hair. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. When they break Ren rest his forehead against hers.

That sat with their foreheads together for several minutes before Nora repositioned on the couch next to him. She tucked her knees into herself and leaned into his side. She pulled the blanket up so it covered every inch of her body.

All the excitement and shock made her tired. She tried to stay awake, but her eyelids grew heavy. Just before she fell asleep, Ren booped her and told her he loved her again.

She mumbled it back just as her eyes shut.

Nora woke up, unsure of exactly where she was. She was slightly disoriented, but remembered she was in Schnee Manor. Finally, her vision fully cleared and so did her thoughts. 

She was wrapped in a blanket, Ruby was sitting alone in a single’s chair, a blanket laid on top of her. Weiss entered the room and suddenly Nora realized she wasn’t in Weiss’s room, but rather in the room she found the girls in when she had learned that Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar were all dead.

That’s when it hits her.

_ It was a dream. _

Nora felt her heart shatter all over again. Tears sprang to her cheeks, and if she had any strength she would have sprinted out of the room. If she had eaten anything she would have thrown up.

_ It was only a dream.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what? I’m sorry, but not enough.
> 
> However, I hope you all can forgive me. If not, I understand, I don’t think I can forgive myself for what I have done to this poor girl.


	3. Today is Enough for Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora pushes a bit to hard and passes out again, but wakes to a new day, and new news.

Nora eventually left the room she found the girls and went back down the hall to Weiss’s room. She walked over to the couch, the one she and Ren were sitting on in her dream and sat down. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t.

She sits there, thinking about the dream, her team, all of her friends.

“Why? Why did you guys have to go? You weren’t supposed to leave me. You promised me just like I promised you guys. We lost Pyrrha, and now I’ve lost you two. We all swore that we wouldn’t lose anyone else after Pyrrha. I-I don’t understand why?”

Nora buries her hand in her face and screams.

Nora sits on the couch, staring into the fire, trying not to think. She’s not sure how long she sits on the couch, trying to not think. Finally, at some point Weiss walks in. She has a tray with a tea kettle and some other things.

“I thought you’d like something to drink,” she says as she walks over to the coffee table and sets the tray down. “I also brought a couple of painkillers to help.”

“Thanks,” Nora’s voice is scratchy.

She pours herself a cup of tea as Weiss stands awkwardly beside the table.

“Do you want to sit for a minute?”

Weiss sits down, but doesn’t say anything.

“Oh, none of us told you and I kept forgetting, but Penny’s here now. She kind of crashed into the area out front. She was brought in, but she wasn’t doing so good. Pietro is on his way over, and Klein’s done his best, but perhaps Pietro will know how to help any pain you are experiencing. On a good note, we did get the word out, but barely. Amity was attacked by Cinder, Emerald, and Neo. They managed to fight them off, and Penny had to hold Amity into place in order for the message to get out. Then, apparently something happened and Penny said something about leaving and that she needed to get to the staff, before she fell. Pietro thinks she was hacked into. He told us how to keep her off until he arrives.”

“Oh,” Nora barely understood half of what Weiss had said.

She takes a sip of her tea. Weiss stares into the fire, and her shoulders shake as though she was crying.

“Weiss, are you okay?” Nora reaches out to her.

“What?” Weiss looks to Nora, her eyes glossy, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“No you’re not. I won’t push, but it's okay to not be okay.”

“I just can’t believe she’s gone… Sure, we may have argued every now and then, but I loved her and I-“ Weiss stops short. “I’m sitting here, devastated at the loss of just one person, but you. You lost all of them. First, Pyrrha, but yet you all kept fighting. You guys continued to not give up, and we lost one person, and none of us have moved in days. Now, now you’ve lost your entire team. Nora, I-I know I’m not the nicest person, and I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what you're going through. I’d be lost without my team. I-I-“

“We never stopped fighting. We lost Pyrrha and we promised each other to never lose anyone else. We didn’t talk about it, but we didn’t stop fighting because she died trying to give us a fighting chance. She died to make the world a better place. We knew that even though she died, we couldn’t let her story end. We all decided to fight for a better tomorrow. We fought for her and in the name of her loss… and even know. I’ve lost the rest of them… but I-I still have you guys, and I won’t stop fighting.”

“Nora… I don’t know if we can. Ruby and Blake rarely move. I-I don’t even know about me. You’re hurt and recovering. There’s not much we can do.”

“You see. You’re wrong. There is so much more we can do, and once I’ve recovered Salem, Emerald, Cinder, and anyone a part of Salem’s following that is still alive better be prepared for what’s to come.”

“Nora, you can’t-“

“No, don’t tell me what I can and cannot do! I keep having dreams that Jaune, Ren, and Oscar come back, when they won’t. Sitting here, doing nothing is killing me. When we lost Pyrrha the only thing that kept me alive was fighting for her and not thinking endlessly about it. But here, now, all I can do is think about them, and it’s killing me! Weiss I know you’re worried about my health, but I’ve never been one to back down, and by hell I won’t let this stop me,” Nora shoots up. “I won’t just stop. I’m hurt, but there are so many innocents out there. They died protecting them, and I’ll do anything to finish what they couldn’t.”

Nora was starting to feel light headed, and she thinks that she strained her up, and that standing up super fast wasn’t the brightest idea.

“I won’t just give up. I can’t. I-I just can’t.”

Then, everything went dark.

~~~

Nora wakes up back in the bed, covers pulled over her, and tucked in. Her head throbs worse than it did when she first woke up, but she can’t get herself to move. Instead, she lays in the bed, under the blankets, trying not to think about the constantly recurring dreams about her team finally coming back.

After laying in the bed for a few minutes she finally moves to grab some painkillers. That’s when she realized that there wasn’t a fire, but it was warm. As though the heat was working again.

Then Weiss walks in, carrying a bundle of clothes.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

“Yeah, I-I just woke up.”

“Okay, good…”

“How long have I been asleep?” Nora was slightly worried about the answer.

“About two weeks. Peitro showed up a few hours after you went out, and he said you shouldn’t be up moving, so he gave you something to help insure you wouldn’t be up moving. He also said to make sure you had plenty of water and that your head would hurt from sleeping so much and not moving.”

Nora was none too thrilled to hear that they opted to drug her to stay asleep, but she didn’t want to yell; not only would her throat not like her, but last time she over strained herself.

“Is Penny okay?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. She’s back to working. Apparently somebody in Atlas managed to hack into her, but Peitro managed to get her back. They aren’t here right now, but should be back. They went to try and fix Amity, and this time keep it up and working.”

Weiss sets the bundle of clothes on the night table next to Nora.

“Peitro said that you should be good to start moving around, and that you can start stretching out your muscles. He also said to go easy, but you should be able to get back out fighting in about another week and a half, given you progress as he predicts. These are some clothes for you when you decide to get up and put them on.”

Weiss goes back to the door, but before she leaves she turns and says, “Also, I talked to Ruby and Blake about what you said. About fighting for them. About how even though they’re gone we can’t stop, not now. Not when they died fighting, and that we have to finish, and they agreed. So when Peitro gives the all clear, we have your back and we’ll start working on the next step.”

With that Weiss leaves, leaving Nora in the silence of the room. Sunlight filters in through the window, and Nora forces herself to get up. She quickly dresses into the sweats and sweater Weiss had brought before grabbing a water bottle and blanket and sitting at the window.

The sun was only starting to rise. Various shades of purple, blue, orange, red and pink light up the sky. Nora always enjoyed watching the sunrise. When the sun rose, the hellish nightmare that lurked in the dark vanished, and she would feel safe, ever since she was a child. To her it also meant that it was a new day, and that today could be the day of certainty, and that she would finally no longer have to fear the nights. However, it was starting to seem that certainty would never be a part of her life and now she didn’t fear the night, but the day as well.

Nora sat, staring out the window, studying the world outside. She lost track of time, but knew it had been hours because the sun was now directly above her.

She gets up and stretches when she hears footsteps followed by Weiss’s voice outside the door. She walks over to the bed and drops the blanket on the bed and takes a drink of water.

Then the door opens, and there, in the doorway is Jaune. 

Nora chokes on the water and Jaune, Ren and Oscar enter the room followed by Weiss. The water bottle Nora was holding drops to the floor and she suddenly couldn’t breathe. Tears blurred her eyes.

_How many times am I going to dream that they are okay?_

“Nora,” Ren hesitates.

“Nora,” suddenly Weiss is in front of her, holding her hand, “it’s okay. It's really them. They’re really here. It’s not a dream, not this time.”

Nora looks at Weiss, unsure if she could believe her eyes and what Weiss had said. Unsure of what to do Nora collapses to the ground, gasping for breath between sobs.

Ren’s arms are around her, holding her to his chest. He hugs her before taking her hands and pressing them against his chest.

“It’s okay. You’re awake. You’re okay. I’m okay. Everything is okay. You can trust this,” he voice is soft as he repeats what he has done many times when she would wake from a nightmare as he would assure her she wasn’t there anymore.

Nora hugs him again, this time knowing he was real, knowing he was okay. This time she knew she wouldn’t wake up to him gone. She sits back taking in the sight of her whole team.

Ren sits on his knees in front of her. His hair is a mess, and he has a cut on his cheek and under his eye. He’s covered in ash and has a few burns. His clothes are torn and blood soaked, and forever ruined. Jaune is covered in ash but his aura has obviously been resorting faster than the others. His hoodie is covered in blood and his hair is a wild mess. And Oscar. His left eye is bruised and his face has cuts and several other bruises. His clothes are torn and extremely dirty and his hair is matted to his head. But other than that her team is fine.

She stands and Ren immedienty gets up to help her. She goes over to Oscar and Jaune and pull them both into a hug, and they both hug her tightly back. The sweater and sweats Weiss had given her are now absolutely disgusting, but Nora didn’t care. She was just glad to have them back.

They sit on the couch and explain what had happened. How Ren was captured and that they went in to save him, and barely got out. How the only reason they made it out was because of Emerald. Oscar tells them about what he had heard while he was in captivity. Lastly, Nora tells them about being in the compound and about the scars now covering her body.

“Wait, what?” Concern takes over Ren’s face when she tells them about the scars.

“The other’s said that they were glowing, but now they just look like this,” she says as she pulls the sleeve to the sweater up her arm, and pulls back her hair to show the ones on her neck and hairline.

Ren looks like he is about to freak, when Jaune cuts in saying that all that matters was that they were all safe and okay. Ren nods his head and takes a deep breath.

Finally the three boys decided that they were gross and needed to shower. Nora hops up, and before any of them can say anything she runs out the door and hunts down Weiss for clothes for them.

She finds Weiss sitting with Ruby, Blake, and Yang.

Yang looks as bad as the others, her hair matted with blood and sweat. Her clothes are dirty and ruined and she has a major cut under one of her eyes.

Nora smiles at Yang and whispers to Weiss, who leads her over to where some clothes were sitting, which Nora grabs and goes back to the room. The boys were standing near the seats when she walked back in.

“I went to grab a change of clothes for you guys.”

They all go and shower, and when Nora returns to the room Ren’s the only one there, sitting alone on the couch.

Nora walks over and hugs him from behind the couch. He smells of flowers and vanilla, like always. Nora walks around the couch and sits next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He reaches over and grabs her hand, holding her hand in his. They sit like that for a few minutes before he sifts.

“I have a little more to add to my side of the story.”

Nora sits up and shifts so she’s facing him and sitting crossed legged on the couch.

“After we lost Oscar, I...I was upset. Angery. Worried. I-I said some things to Jaune and Yang that I shouldn’t have said. Then, the next day, while we were in the aircraft with the Ace Ops, my-my semblance evolved. Like, all of a sudden I could see the emotions other’s were feeling. It’s not like, super easy to tell, they have these little things of color that float around them in different colors.”

He stops and looks at Nora and looks down to his lap before continuing.

“At first I was confused, but I think I understood pretty quickly. Then, when I thought I was gonna die, I realized that I wouldn’t see you again, and that when we went separate ways we didn’t necessarily leave on the best terms. I was so scared I wasn’t going to see you again…”

“Ren?” Nora leaned down so she could see his face better, and tears rolled down his face.

“I don’t know when I realized I didn’t just love you like a friend or like family. I don’t know when I first realized I loved, loved you, but I do know that I always fought it. But when I was going to die I fully realized that I loved you more than anything, and I knew I had to make it out. I knew I had to see you again, that I had to tell you,” he looks up at her. “Then, when I walked in and saw you, I felt safe, and at home. But you, you looked like you had seen a ghost. Which for you, you were,” he lighty smiled at her, tears still slowly rolling down his cheek. Looking back down he says,“I-I didn’t mean to use my semblance on you, but I did. You had these little pink and blue and green and I think black… And now…” Ren looks at her again, this time taking in every inch of her. “Now all I see is pink, with a little green.”

“What’s that mean?” Nora asked, slightly scared of the answer.

“From what I’ve gathered, pink means love, but green, I don’t know.”

Nora looks down at her lap, her cheeks flaring up. She didn’t know what to say. For the first time Nora was completely at a loss as to what to say. Suddenly, Ren took Nora’s face in his hands. He looked her in the eyes before closing his and closing the space between them. Nora was confused for a second before she kissed him back, her hands moving to rest around his neck, playing with his hair.

Finally, Ren breaks off from the kiss, and he smiles, resting his forehead against hers. He moved his hands from her face and rested his arms around her waist.

“I love you,” he whispers, his lips brushing her’s.

“I love you, too,” Nora smiles back, a single tear rolls down her cheek.

Maybe, just maybe, everything will work out. Maybe one day she’ll have certainty and not live in fear. As for today, it’s still not quite there, but she was okay, and so was everyone she cared about, which was enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LOOK I MADE IT OKAY. I FIXED IT. SHE’S OKAY. ALSKJF;ASLD  
> TRUST ME WITH THIS. THEY ARE ALL OKAY!!! I’M GIVING THE LONG NEEDED COMFORT A;LSKDJF  
> I’m sorry I hurt her, but I made it better. I fixed her pain. Aslkdjf;a


End file.
